nightmare on elm street

I’ve been watching a lot of slasher movies recently. I really like the Friday the 13th series (I have an essay on the box set coming out soon, hopefully.) This one however…eh. It was okay. I know it’s supposed to be one of the more critically acclaimed slasher films…and the effects are certainly good…but the eighties synth music really irritated me, and the relatively complicated script really showed up the mediocre acting. Also, the characters are overall too likable; there isn’t the tension between wanting them dead and worrying about them that I enjoyed in Friday the 13th. In other words, I think the things that tend to make Nightmare more critically accepted — more complex plotting, less open sadism — are the things that made me like it less.

Not that I disliked it. It was fine. It’s just that Freddy is no Jason.

4 Comments

I watched Nightmare on Elm Street again quite recently, and I was surprised how abysmal the acting was, especially from the lead actress. I guess there’s something to be said for not asking too much from your cast.

Friday the 13th has always appealed to me more, mainly due to the simplicity of the concept and its quaint devotion to continuity (at least up through VIII). And against my better judgment, I’m looking forward to the remake.

yeah i thought nightmare was pretty disappointing. i haven’t seen a lot of slasher movies, so i don’t have much to compare it too. but i thought freddy krueger wasn’t scary and the ending seemed really contrived. the whole “it was all a dream, oh no it wasn’t, or was it?” bit just muddled the whole thing, in my opinion anyway. still john saxon is a badass so i have to give some respect to any movie in which he appears.